THE LAST TIME GUARDIAN
Oct. 20th, 2014 12:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rayasoSeason 9, Week 25
"Overwatch"
Vibrate and spin, spin and vibrate, all day and all night. Such is the life of a cesium atom, good old predictable Element 55, all 55 protons, 55 electrons and 78 neutrons of me. My friends call me Cs. Gertrude Zeit-Vormund is not my friend; she wants to get rid of me, and return everything to the dark ages!
I work for the United States Naval Observatory, at the heart of the Cesium Atomic Clock, the most accurate timekeeper ever invented, and I set the time for the whole world. I’m good at my job, and I should not have to put up with Gertrude.
Gertrude is the last of the human guardians of time, and she had this job before me, which she describes as “making sure that Time doesn’t wander too far.” Now, she works in the basement of the USNO, behind a gray door with a hand-made sign reading “Timekeeper.” When I first came on-line, Gertrude was given a lateral promotion to this office.
She has nothing to do, and since Gertrude’s a civil servant, she keeps on doing it. Gertrude is always plotting against me, trying to get her old job back. It’s hard to go from being so important to banishment in the basement, but that’s progress, and not even Gertrude can stop Time.
No one knows where the first Time Guardians came from, but Gertrude says they have existed for thousands of years, ever since mankind devised ways of calculating time, from the sundial through mechanical clocks to modern methods. They have had many names in many languages, but there has only been one at a time. When one dies, another appears, laboring to ensure that Time is correctly measured. It sounds like magical hokum to me and I told her this.
Gertrude also says that she is the last Time Guardian, so when she dies, the era of human oversight will finally be over – and she blames me.
Gertrude thinks I am quivering in fear – I’m not, it’s just the way I am – but I do worry. The word around the Periodic Table is that she has thought up something particularly nasty this time. Sure, there have been blackouts and some graffiti (“ATOMS NO, HUMANS YES!”), and one time Gertrude kept pounding on her ceiling with a broomstick. Since I’m located right above her office, she probably thought the vibrations might disrupt my delicate adjustments. No such luck, although she did scare some kindergartners on a field trip who thought the noise was from a time ghost.
Doesn’t Gertrude care that time-related trauma is the number one cause of tardiness? And she thinks I have no soul!
That is the heart of it. Gertrude says she opposed the building of an atomic clock because Time needs a watcher with a human soul, and a cesium atom doesn’t have one. She told the scientists that as Time Guardian, she had some influence over Time itself, and that she could cause time slippage when needed. That slippage can give a father a few more minutes to rush to the hospital to hold his dying baby, or allow a tardy child to reach school in time for a test. Little things, she said, but things far more important than knowing Time to the zillionth decimal. Luckily for me, they ignored her, and so here I am.
Supposedly, time slippage is so small that it doesn’t matter, except to those Gertrude claims she helps. Gertrude can’t control events, but she says this reminds Time who is boss. What nonsense! She once told me that the “leap seconds” I have to keep adding are proof of time slippage, rather than the natural slowing of the earth’s rotation, and she dared me to put them to good use instead of wasting them on recalibrations. I don’t take dares, especially when accuracy is involved.
Gertrude is like Martha, the last passenger pigeon, doomed to extinction. But unlike Martha, she is aware of her fate. I am doomed too, although Gertrude doesn’t know it. I am eventually going to be replaced by the hydrogen maser clock, but you don’t hear me complaining about it, do you?
I admit that Gertrude and her predecessors did an adequate job, especially since no one asked them to be Time Guardians, and the pay, even here at the USNO, was never very much. They never married or had children, but instead devoted their lives to maintaining Time because, somehow, they were chosen. With all that talk of “soul” you would think Gertrude would learn how to let things go!
Sure, Gertrude’s office is small and out of the way, and no one talks to her anymore, but whose fault is that? She could be a little friendlier and hang out at the coffee station, instead of always telling everyone that the USNO’s “mistake” has resulted in so much avoidable suffering, and that without a Time Guardian, there is no one to soften the pain of Time. I don’t even know what she means; I keep far more accurate time and my eventual replacement will be even better.
Gertrude’s latest plot involves Chlorine, Element 17, and a first-class leach that combines with almost every element in nature, including me. Gertrude was spotted at a swimming pool store buying chlorine powder, which she said was for her swimming pool, but I know better. She’s going to scatter it in my work area, knowing I’ll give in to my natural urges and join with it, creating little Cesium Chloride molecules. Gertrude knows you can’t run an atomic clock on CsCl. If she pulls it off, I will be history.
Sure, I’ll be a goner when the hydrogen maser clock gets built, but I still can’t let Gertrude beat me before that happens. Of course, it will be hard to stop her, since she’s the only one who can hear me. I can talk to Gertrude, timekeeper to timekeeper, but that's it. What's worse is, even though I don’t like her and she's trying to get rid of me, I still don’t want her fired. If Gertrude leaves, I'll have no one to keep me company.
My friends the engineers are coming tomorrow, probably to add some advanced anti-chlorine filter. Gertrude told me that the engineers are actually going to install the new hydrogen maser clock. Utter nonsense! I’m not due for replacement for decades, but Gertrude said that the scientists made a big breakthrough, and I shouldn’t worry because she will ask that I be moved to her office so she can take care of me. That is ridiculous. USNO will never stick me in that hole, especially with someone who hates me, not after my decades of service.
I don’t believe anything Gertrude says anyway, it’s just psychological warfare. Gertrude snorted when I said that, because if I don’t have a soul I can’t have a psyche. I'll bet she plans to use me against the new clock -- that would be just like her -- but as usual, she denies everything. She said she is just looking forward to some company, someone who can talk about Time with her, even if I don’t understand it the all-important way she thinks she does.
I know the engineers, and they will never do this to me. If they give me to Gertrude, she'll take control of me and bend Time to her will again!
Those engineers are on my side, I know it—they have to be. I still have important work to do. Someone will need to train the new hydrogen atom and I can protect H from Gertrude; after all, H only has one proton and one electron, such a push-over! The engineers will keep me safe, and I'll keep fighting back as I’ve always done.
Gertrude can scheme all she wants, but I'm right and we both know it. Her attempts to return us to the dark ages of imperfect human timekeeping will never win.
********************
"Overwatch"
Vibrate and spin, spin and vibrate, all day and all night. Such is the life of a cesium atom, good old predictable Element 55, all 55 protons, 55 electrons and 78 neutrons of me. My friends call me Cs. Gertrude Zeit-Vormund is not my friend; she wants to get rid of me, and return everything to the dark ages!
I work for the United States Naval Observatory, at the heart of the Cesium Atomic Clock, the most accurate timekeeper ever invented, and I set the time for the whole world. I’m good at my job, and I should not have to put up with Gertrude.
Gertrude is the last of the human guardians of time, and she had this job before me, which she describes as “making sure that Time doesn’t wander too far.” Now, she works in the basement of the USNO, behind a gray door with a hand-made sign reading “Timekeeper.” When I first came on-line, Gertrude was given a lateral promotion to this office.
She has nothing to do, and since Gertrude’s a civil servant, she keeps on doing it. Gertrude is always plotting against me, trying to get her old job back. It’s hard to go from being so important to banishment in the basement, but that’s progress, and not even Gertrude can stop Time.
No one knows where the first Time Guardians came from, but Gertrude says they have existed for thousands of years, ever since mankind devised ways of calculating time, from the sundial through mechanical clocks to modern methods. They have had many names in many languages, but there has only been one at a time. When one dies, another appears, laboring to ensure that Time is correctly measured. It sounds like magical hokum to me and I told her this.
Gertrude also says that she is the last Time Guardian, so when she dies, the era of human oversight will finally be over – and she blames me.
Gertrude thinks I am quivering in fear – I’m not, it’s just the way I am – but I do worry. The word around the Periodic Table is that she has thought up something particularly nasty this time. Sure, there have been blackouts and some graffiti (“ATOMS NO, HUMANS YES!”), and one time Gertrude kept pounding on her ceiling with a broomstick. Since I’m located right above her office, she probably thought the vibrations might disrupt my delicate adjustments. No such luck, although she did scare some kindergartners on a field trip who thought the noise was from a time ghost.
Doesn’t Gertrude care that time-related trauma is the number one cause of tardiness? And she thinks I have no soul!
That is the heart of it. Gertrude says she opposed the building of an atomic clock because Time needs a watcher with a human soul, and a cesium atom doesn’t have one. She told the scientists that as Time Guardian, she had some influence over Time itself, and that she could cause time slippage when needed. That slippage can give a father a few more minutes to rush to the hospital to hold his dying baby, or allow a tardy child to reach school in time for a test. Little things, she said, but things far more important than knowing Time to the zillionth decimal. Luckily for me, they ignored her, and so here I am.
Supposedly, time slippage is so small that it doesn’t matter, except to those Gertrude claims she helps. Gertrude can’t control events, but she says this reminds Time who is boss. What nonsense! She once told me that the “leap seconds” I have to keep adding are proof of time slippage, rather than the natural slowing of the earth’s rotation, and she dared me to put them to good use instead of wasting them on recalibrations. I don’t take dares, especially when accuracy is involved.
Gertrude is like Martha, the last passenger pigeon, doomed to extinction. But unlike Martha, she is aware of her fate. I am doomed too, although Gertrude doesn’t know it. I am eventually going to be replaced by the hydrogen maser clock, but you don’t hear me complaining about it, do you?
I admit that Gertrude and her predecessors did an adequate job, especially since no one asked them to be Time Guardians, and the pay, even here at the USNO, was never very much. They never married or had children, but instead devoted their lives to maintaining Time because, somehow, they were chosen. With all that talk of “soul” you would think Gertrude would learn how to let things go!
Sure, Gertrude’s office is small and out of the way, and no one talks to her anymore, but whose fault is that? She could be a little friendlier and hang out at the coffee station, instead of always telling everyone that the USNO’s “mistake” has resulted in so much avoidable suffering, and that without a Time Guardian, there is no one to soften the pain of Time. I don’t even know what she means; I keep far more accurate time and my eventual replacement will be even better.
Gertrude’s latest plot involves Chlorine, Element 17, and a first-class leach that combines with almost every element in nature, including me. Gertrude was spotted at a swimming pool store buying chlorine powder, which she said was for her swimming pool, but I know better. She’s going to scatter it in my work area, knowing I’ll give in to my natural urges and join with it, creating little Cesium Chloride molecules. Gertrude knows you can’t run an atomic clock on CsCl. If she pulls it off, I will be history.
Sure, I’ll be a goner when the hydrogen maser clock gets built, but I still can’t let Gertrude beat me before that happens. Of course, it will be hard to stop her, since she’s the only one who can hear me. I can talk to Gertrude, timekeeper to timekeeper, but that's it. What's worse is, even though I don’t like her and she's trying to get rid of me, I still don’t want her fired. If Gertrude leaves, I'll have no one to keep me company.
My friends the engineers are coming tomorrow, probably to add some advanced anti-chlorine filter. Gertrude told me that the engineers are actually going to install the new hydrogen maser clock. Utter nonsense! I’m not due for replacement for decades, but Gertrude said that the scientists made a big breakthrough, and I shouldn’t worry because she will ask that I be moved to her office so she can take care of me. That is ridiculous. USNO will never stick me in that hole, especially with someone who hates me, not after my decades of service.
I don’t believe anything Gertrude says anyway, it’s just psychological warfare. Gertrude snorted when I said that, because if I don’t have a soul I can’t have a psyche. I'll bet she plans to use me against the new clock -- that would be just like her -- but as usual, she denies everything. She said she is just looking forward to some company, someone who can talk about Time with her, even if I don’t understand it the all-important way she thinks she does.
I know the engineers, and they will never do this to me. If they give me to Gertrude, she'll take control of me and bend Time to her will again!
Those engineers are on my side, I know it—they have to be. I still have important work to do. Someone will need to train the new hydrogen atom and I can protect H from Gertrude; after all, H only has one proton and one electron, such a push-over! The engineers will keep me safe, and I'll keep fighting back as I’ve always done.
Gertrude can scheme all she wants, but I'm right and we both know it. Her attempts to return us to the dark ages of imperfect human timekeeping will never win.
********************
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no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 07:25 pm (UTC)